they're very good at saying no, they're not very good at laying out a plan that can actually pass. and instead, what do they do? they just filibuster. >> the frustration on capitol hill on both sides of the aisle, and with the debt limit deadline now less than three days away. the nation and the world watching to see what washington will do. will it be compromise or default? live reports plus expert analysis next here on msnbc saturday. good morning, everyone. i'm alex witt. it is now 11:00 a.m. here on the east coast, 8:00 a.m. out west, and here's what's happening right now. lawmakers head to capitol hill for a day of marathon negotiations. the senate will start its session at 1:00 p.m. eastern and in a sign of just how dire that situation is, it has scheduled a test vote at 1:00 a.m. early

sunday morning after 12 long hours with no break at all. meantime, the house is also meeting this afternoon, planning to vote to reject the senate bill before it's even been pass passed. and things aren't much friendlier in the senate. >> the minority leader just told the majority leader that he will not negotiate with him. that is really quite extraordinary. the republican leader, mcconnell, has told the majority leader, reid, he will not negotiate with him, he'll only negotiate with the president. i've been here 25 years. i have never heard anything like that. >> senate democrats held a news conference late last night after the chamber killed a debt measure that was passed by the house. >> the senate is the only way out of this mess. you've seen the huge difficulties in the house, their inability to even tie their own

shoes. >> to think with a straight face they've sent us something that the american people would accept, the ryan budget, cap and cut, whatever that is, and then this thing? that's -- that's not legislation. that is a -- that was an extravaganza over there that made them all look very foolish. >> nbc's luke russert is live for us on capitol hill. another good morning to you, luke. how bad is the breakdown between the parties right now, and have you heard anything this morning on capitol hill that indicates that things may go favorably today? >> reporter: as of right now, alex, there is still no movement between both sides in the united states senate. i spoke to one aide and said, what do you think the percentage chances of a deal getting done today? they put that at 15%. so slim to none if you will on the lower side on saturday. really what we're expecting to see today is harry reid trying to negotiate with mitch mcconnell who said the president must be president at any of these negotiations throughout the day on the debt limit increase. unclear as to whether or not that will happen.

but harry reid's strategy will try to be and convince eight to ten, 12 republican senators to come on board with his compromise. he'll put a sweetener in there for them to try to say, look, come over to our side, let's pass this through the united states senate and send it over to the house. the problem is the clock becomes a main issue. in order to go by the procedures, you'll see the 1:00 a.m. test vote, that could be pushed back to tomorrow if negotiations are ongoing between reid and mcconnell. but unless they agree to expedite the process, the earliest the house could see this is possibly tuesday morning, tuesday afternoon. you saw how difficult it was for speaker john boehner to get a bill out of the house that just had republican support. any compromise bill that reid sends over there, even if republicans back it in the united states senate is expected i've heard from the gop aide to lose 100 to 140 republicans, maybe even more than that. you could see a scenario where on tuesday night john boehner receives a compromise bill from

the united states senate and he's going to have to do an aggressive whip to just get 50, 60 members to join, to cross the finish line. the two plans, the boehner plan which the senate killed last night, the reid plan which the house is going to kill even before it gets negotiated, there's a lot of similarities in terms of how much they cut spending but there's still huge different divides, particularly the balanced budget amendment, specifically how much the debt limit would be increased in the second tranche, president obama wants this to be a process that goes through 2012. republicans want to cut $1.8 trillion in spending, a lot of democrats fear that will come out of entitlements and what not. i'm hearing reid will do an aggressive push trying to get moderate republicans on his team and then send something over to the house by the end of the weekend. honestly in terms of what the clock tells us, that's the only plausible way forward that we know of right now unless mitch mcconnell, president obama and john boehner strike up some sort of grand bargain in the next 48

hours but that does not look very plausible. >> i was going to say, don't hold your breath on that one. luke russert, thank you very much from capitol hill. the argument in washington over the debt limit, it is getting a poor reaction from investors in new york. the stock market was down friday because of uncertainty over what will happen. the dow dropped 97 points and the government could begin to run out of money on tuesday. in his weekly address, the president said both sides are not that far apart. so he demanded compromise. >> any solution to avoid default must be bipartisan. it must have the support of both parties that were sent here to represent the american people. not just one faction of one party. the time for putting party first is over. the time for compromise on behalf of the american people is now. >> let's et good an insiders perspective now, bill nelson of florida. good morning. nice to see you, sir. >> good morning, alex. >> are you optimistic the senate can pass a bill today? i mean, you've got these 12

hours of discussions starting at about two hours from now, and you're going to have a vote at 1:00 a.m. what do you think is going to happen? >> i think tomorrow night it will all come together. i think harry reid will be able to get the additional republican senators so that we can break the filibuster. we're going to -- they're going to filibuster all night. so we're going to be in session all night. but somewhere in the wee hours of the morning, i think we will get the votes and then send a package that is bipartisan back over to the house and at that point boehner, the speaker is going to have to get sufficient votes from his own party to match with the democratic votes and that will then solve the problem. >> what do you say to progressives, senator, who feel democrats are giving too much away in these negotiations? >> well, there is in harry

reid's proposal a mechanism by which there would be significant deficit reduction that could include revenues coming from doing away with the tax preferences. and completely overhauling the tax code, even lowering the tax rates and simplifying down to three tax brackets. so there's a lot in there that progressives can be very happy about. >> okay. something that a lot of folks, i've been getting some e-mails this morning -- i know you've been hearing this morning about the troops in afghanistan who are worried about being paid. how close are we to default really, and what do you say to those people who are concerned? i know you have constituents that certainly will be affiliated with the military. what do you say to them, they think their families won't get the paychecks they need. >> well, we're not going to

default. that's number one. and even if we did, social security and the military are going to get paid. so what i say is don't worry, this is going to be solved. this is a political problem of people wanting to have it their own way. now, you know, you simply can't govern this country this way. you have to have people of good will that will come together as the good book says, come, let us reason together. you can't stick in your ideological stance in your partisan stance, you've got to come together for the good of the country, and that will happen somewhere in the course of tonight and into tomorrow. >> and, sir, i know that you could probably very easily finger point to members on the extreme other side of the aisle, people classified as tea party

members, those who have been rather intractable through all this. how about democrats? are there democrats that you think really need to loosen their stance as well? >> well, the extreme wing of the democratic party is not what's holding up the problem here. this is the extreme right wing which had very successful numbers be elected to congress last year, and that's been the problem you've seen play out over the last four days. poor old john boehner, the speaker of the house, he couldn't round up enough republican votes to pass his own measure. and so it's this kind of ideological politics that the people of this country are getting fed up with. but, you know, elections have consequences. and that's what we're seeing now. and i think you'll see the pendulums coming back to the center and you'll see an opposite reaction next election. >> okay.

well, bill nelson of florida, hope you have some comfortable shoes on. it's going to be a long day for you there. >> i've got my thick rubber soled shoe on. >> excellent. good to hear. thanks so much for your time. earlier today i spoke with chuck todd and i asked him what do you expect today as the senate considers harry reid's debt measure. >> there's sort of two paths here, he's going to get his 60 votes. i promise you that. there's already enough republicans who sort of are exhausted from this on the senate side. the question is does he just get barely enough where it's 60, 61 votes out of the senate and then we see this drama play out in the house and it is one vote at a time and it makes it very difficult to get out. or do mcconnell and reid strike the kind of deal today that could attract 25 republicans, 30 republicans. they send a strong bipartisan message, and it makes it that much harder for anybody in the house really, any credible member of the house to vote against it, because at this point we're too close to the

debt limit. >> i wonder how you could put reid and mcconnell in the same sentence. the democratic leaders are all accusing senator mitch mcconnell of saying he is not going to negotiate, he will only negotiate with the president. do you see a difference with where things stand with him now this morning? >> there was some -- i'll be honest, i think some of this is posturing, but i have to say, i am surprised at some of the heated political rhetoric. look. john boehner ruined his bill when it became polarized and overly ideological either with the balanced budget amendment, but then polarized it rhetorically. do democrats want to be caught in the same trap where they're doing the same thing, using their rhetoric, i was surprised yesterday that the president made the decision to tap his campaign arm to try to increase pressure. again, these last 72 hours should be the time that everybody's trying to calm the political waters, not create this political pressure and this political posturing from the outside so that everybody can

get comfortable making a deal at this point. and so i am surprised that we're seeing the heated rhetoric this late in the game. august 3rd, guys, have at it. you know what i mean? let's just cut it right now, cut this deal. they could be very close, and then go back to your battle stations and live another day. >> and you can hear more from chuck todd on "the daily rundown" weekdays 9:00 a.m. eastern only here on msnbc. do keep it here all day on msnbc saturday, for the latest developments on capitol hill as lawmakers try to cobble together a bill to save the u.s. from default. still ahead, the last testimony in the amanda knox appeal and the crucial testimony that could spring her from prison. also coming up, the latest in the search for celina, a 9-year-old girl who just disappeared without a trace. and a crash landing of near catastrophic proportions that ended in a miracle. we'll explain all these pictures here on msnbc saturday. me antac.

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it's quite the showdownon capitol hill today as the nation approaches the 11th hour in the debt ceiling crisis. the house will be meeting in less than an hour. they will reportedly hold a symbolic vote on senator reid's latest plan. meanwhile the senate will reconvene at 1:00 p.m. today. the senate rejected speaker boehner's plan last night hours after it passed the house. david, good morning. >> good morning, good to be with you. >> i'm glad you're here, do you have a crystal ball here and give us word on what will happen today? >> i wish i did, but i do think some of the quotes and comments coming out from republicans in this senate indicate they are going to get to a deal. you have senator john thune saying we're closer than you think we might be, even senator jim demint, pretty staunch

conservative saying i don't want to get this close and play with this deadline. so i think you are going to get a deal in the senate, it just e depends on how big it it is then when it goes back to the house. >> is there enough time to get it together and actually pass something? >> you know, i think there is in washington time. it doesn't look like there is because of how slow things typically move, but this is very, very real, and when you're scheduling 1:00 a.m. cloture votes, they know the time is ticking. it's 85 hours and counting, and you know, they're going to have to get a deal because they see the consequences, not only economically, but politically. >> okay. as ridiculous as this may sound to some, was there ever a possibility about like a one-page document simply raising the debt ceiling and then dealing with the rest of this stuff when we don't have this, you know, deadline hanging over

our heads of august 2nd? >> that's what the house republicans and sort of the tea party caucus would not go along with. remember, that was president obama's original position, raise the debt ceiling separate and then we'll deal with spending cuts later. but that is not being allowed by many in the tea party caucus because frankly they said they're elected on this. a lot of them talked about this during their campaigns in 2010. they won, they won the majority, speaker boehner owes his speakership to a lot of these tea party caucus members who won, and that's why they have a seat, and that's why they're sort of controlling the terms of the debate here. >> yeah. and you've got to wonder, even if things get done by tuesday, and goodness knows we all hope that happens, the illwill or the difficulty working together that follows, i mean, there will be a little bit of a break in congress. you think it's enough time to have things cool off enough to come back in the fall and work productively together? >> well, that's part of the problem, is we will go through

this again, unless there's some grand bargain which doesn't look like it will be hashed out. we're going to have to go through this again possibly next year in a more politically-charged environment where the debt ceiling will again be on the table and it will be more sensitive for some of these tea party members to try to raise it again. so, yes, you already saw -- you know, president obama's getting hurt by this, too. his approval number's at the lowest it has been. >> yeah, 40%. >> independents at 41%, that's a very troubling number for him. so to have to go through this fight all over again is a risk for everybody on the ballot in 2012. >> david, thank you so much, from politico. appreciate that. the search is on the way for deputy brian gross who disappeared while he and members of a department were trying to rescue a girl from the north platte river. after the girl was rescued the team discovered gross was missing. the sheriff's department says they will not stop looking until they find him. residents in the northeast

are cleaning up this morning after severe thunderstorms slammed through the area overnight. in white plains, new york, high winds caused this tree to smash right through a home. there wasn't anyone inside at the time. then in greenwich, connecticut, thousands were left in the dark after toppled trees knocked down power lines there. and lightning started nearly a dozen brush fires in reno, nevada, friday night. one of the largest outbreaks near keystone canyon burned at least 100 acres. at one point the fire was very close to one residential neighborhood but thankfully heavy rain doused most of the flames and no homes were damaged. queen elizabeth's granddaughter zara phillips is getting married in scotland. somewhat less lavish than the previous royal wedding. you know what i'm talking about. among the guests, the queen herself and, of course, the newly weds kate and william. the bride does not use a royal title but she is 13th in line to

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we are watching capitol hill right now, both houses of congress will be back in session. the republican-led house is at odds with the democratic-controlled senate with neither appearing open to the others' proposal. the senate shot down speaker boehner's plan last night and house republicans are indicating they will block majority leader reid's bill. showdown in the courtroom, prosecutors battled it out with independent forensics experts today in italy over dna evidence used to convict the american of murdering her british roommate in 2007. keith miller has the latest. >> reporter: her mother was there to offer support in the final stages of the appeal. the judge started proceedings, reading a letter from the head of italy's police forensic team. defending the professionalism of

his officers. in an earlier session, court-appointed forensic scientists testified they discovered more than 50 breaches of international forensic protocols in the dna used to convict knox and her former boyfriend. the two were convicted of murdering meredith kercher, an exchange student from england, based largely on dna gathered by police. by on scientific review, the alleged murder weapon was found not to contain dna material from the victim, as the prosecution contended. police forensic teams were accused of shoddy work, that resulted in what the experts called a bungled case. that testimony, according to a leading criminal attorney in rome appears to seriously undermine the prosecution's case. >> it is a tremendous, tremendous advantage and victory for the defense, for amanda knox, because for an appellate court to request a review of the

evidence means that the appellate court has already made an initial determination that the evidence used to convict amanda in trial level was flawed. >> reporter: the prosecution in rebuttal attempted to discredit the forensic scientist, drawing a warning from the judge. knox's defense team perhaps sensing a victory declined to request the experts. the knox family were cautious but optimistic. >> i'm really hopeful it will just become even clearer that the way the evidence was handled was inappropriate and that this has all been a big mistake and that two innocent people have been locked up. >> reporter: the appeals judge at the end of this trial has three options. he can overturn the conviction, reduce the prison sentence or impose a harsher sentence if new evidence sways the case. >> and that was keith miller reporting from perugia, italy.

president obama is counting on compromise from capitol hill to get a debt reduction deal before tuesday's deadline, but at this point is it even possible to avoid a default? and u.s. troops in afghanistan have a question for the nation's top military man. will they get paid? his answer, coming up on msnbc saturday. [ barks ] ♪ [ cat meows ] ♪ [ whistles ] ♪ [ cat meows ] ♪ [ ting! ] [ male announcer ] travelers can help you protect the things you care about and save money with multi-policy discounts. are you getting the coverage you need and the discous you deserve? for an agent or quote, call 800-my-coverage or visit travelers.com.

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with chase quickdeposit on your smartphone, you just snap a picture, hit send and done. chase quickdeposit. take a step forward and chase what matters. ♪ we just keep on keepin' on ♪ ♪ keep on well kol back to msnbc saturday. we have new word from president obama this morning on the debt crisis unfolding on capitol hill. in his weekly address, the president called for compromise on both sides to avoid a government default. >> the parties are not that far apart here. we're in rough agreement on how much spending we need to cut to reduce our deficit. and we agree on a process to tackle tax reform and entitlement reform. there are plenty of ways out of this mess, but there's very little time. >> joining me now, nbc white house correspondent mike viqueira. >> good morning. >> i'm curious about the mood at

the white house this morning, because when the president talks about rough agreement, can you take the word rough and look at it a number of different ways. >> reporter: well, it's interesting. the president yesterday appeared in the diplomatic reception room, made that statement early in the morning before all the drama played out. but while it was apparent what exactly was going to happen, and that is that house speaker john boehner, after days of wrestling with his tea party conservative caucus, was not going to pass what he intended to pass, had to change the bill yet again. got it out of the house of representatives, but if anything it was even deader on arrival in the senate, if you'll forgive the expression, than it would have been before. so it's clear that the president calls for compromise, the president calls for bipartisanship. it's clear that it's up to harry reid and the democratic leader there to work it out with mitch mcconnell or whatever republican senators he can find, alex, because it's all down to them now, with just three days and change left to go. and even under a best case scenario, this thing is going to go right up until the deadline. if you look at all the

congressional procedures, and, yes, the politics that have still yet to play out. at this moment, there are negotiations going on behind the scenes. harry reid needs a minimum of seven republican senators to come along with him, eight, nine, depending on how it goes on the democratic side. obviously the more the better, because if it passes out of the senate, if something is to pass out of the senate and goes to the house with an enormous majority that puts tremendous pressure on john boehner, the speaker, to put something back on the floor. i know it's bewildering. the politics are hard to understand. the underlying issues are difficult to understand. people are angry and frustrated with washington, but this is the way it, woulds here. the politics are still playing themselves out. people hold their cards close to the vest until the very last minute at a very minimum the first crucial test that we expect where we'll have a clearer idea is tonight, or i should say tomorrow morning, at 1:00 a.m. the first procedural, or test vote, in the senate will give us some idea where this thing is going. >> frankly as we get a look at

the political sausage making in washington. >> reporter: it's gruesome. >> nothing short of gruesome. thank you very much, mike viqueira. american soldiers in afghanistan are asking questions about what happens if congress does not pass a debt limit bill. admiral mike mullins, troops are asking him. admiral mullen said, quote, i actually don't know the answer to that question. i'm confident that at some point in time whatever compensation you are owed you will be given. we're crossing fingers. we are now less than a half hour away from a debate, i'm joined by cory guarder in of colorado, a freshman remember. good morning to you. nice to see you. >> good morning, alex. thanks for having me. >> i'm glad you're here. i know you are one of the votes in favor of the boehner bill, but that bill dead on arrival in the senate. still you have said that you are

confident a deal will be reached by tuesday. can you give us a perspective on how close you and your colleagues are to reaching that deal? >> i think we are close. we've sent several ideas over to the united states senate where we're working to make our -- put our economy on sound footing so we can continue to grow, create a stronger economy, but we have to do so with meaningful spending cuts. that's the package we sent over to the united states senate yesterday. unfortunately they haven't allowed a vote on either one of those, so we'll continue to work with them so we can identify this critical issue that builds toward a plan. >> there are those who will suggest it's going to be hard to work with anything when you've already announced, as a bloc in the house, that whatever senator read sends over will not be passed. that it's dead on arrival. that's what happened in essence after a two-hour session of voting within the senate. i mean, how do you think that looks to americans and to your constituents that think things just are not getting done on capitol hill? >> well, it is time that we put

people before politics. washington, d.c., clearly is not the solution, it's the problem. and by making sure that we're putting plans before the american people that do two primary things. number one, cut spending, number two, make sure we meet the august 2nd deadline. that's the plans that the house has put before the senate. and it's interesting, the pot and the kettle have obviously never met the united states senate because every time that we do something they say no, and then they blame us. >> well, let's talk about what concessions you are willing to make to reach some sort of an agreement, sir. say a reasonable tax increase, perhaps, on the wealthy, along with cuts in defense and changes to entitlement programs? i mean, are these things that are on the table that you can go along with or not? >> well, i certainly think we need to protect and preserve our safety net programs, entitlement programs. we need to take a hard look at defense spending to make sure we're making appropriate cuts where it's responsible to do so. but nobody has yet to explain to me how increasing taxes creates jobs and that's our priority, how we get this economy moving forward. tax increases do not create

jobs. >> give me an idea how this is all going to play out. >> you know, i think today we're going to have a great conversation, not only on the floor but working with the united states senate to meet those primary objectives for the american people. this is our opportunity to listen to the american public to create solutions that they are demanding and those solutions, cut spending, put a plan in place to meet the august 2nd deadline. >> colorado republican congressman cory gardner, many thanks for your time. good luck today. >> thank you very much. as you all know, uncle sam is quickly running out of cash. now apple actually has more cash on the books right now than uncle sam. the maker of ipads and iphones is sitting on about $76 billion, while the u.s. treasury now has about $74 billion. my colleague richard lui is here with new details on who could get paid and who won't, should we default. good morning. >> good morning to you, alex. it's simply a catch 22.

uncle sam struggling like many americans now, not enough cash, and a lot of bills to pay. come august 3rd, this could be the choice for them. a tough choice. pay this list of bills, getting medicare and medicaid payments to grandma, sending social security checks out, and pay groups like contractors. this is that list i was talking about, that keep our military running. or the other list to take a look at, pay back some of the money we've borrowed, over $4.5 trillion owed to governments around the world. china at the top of the list, as you can see there. lending one out of every four dollars that we owe. only a portion of this needs to be paid in august, good thing. all told, $306 billion starting august 3rd. the problem? only $172 billion is coming in from tax and other revenues. that leaves a big shortfall of $134 billion. so who do you pay? many say the treasury department will go with foreign governments and other bondholders first. though few details are out on who and how bills will be paid, the treasury department has been

putting together a payment plan. one possibility in that plan perhaps, do what president eisenhower did when the debt ceiling was not raised in 1953 he had the treasury department issue gold certificates to federal reserves across the country and got cash back to keep the government humming along. alex, there's some 100 million checks issued by the government every month, and in three days the unsavory job of payment triage begins, choosing grandma or governments. >> an unenviable task to be sure. coming up we'll have more on the debt ceiling crisis and president obama's role in it. we're going to speak with pat buchanan and morris reid about that. a caribbean airlines plane with 140 people on board crashed earlier today in guyana. the crash occurred at the country's main airport just south of george town. it broke in two, but remarkably looking at these pictures, no one was killed. there are several injuries, though, it's not clear how many

or how severe they are. the plane left new york and stopped in trinidad before attempting to land there in guyana. authorities in northern new hampshire have knocked on 300 doors so far in the search for a missing 11-year-old girl. celina cass was last seen at her home monday night and a mamg ma search is underway. >> reporter: alex, investigators are back out and volunteers will soon be fanning out, searching once again for signs of celina cass. this investigation now leading into its sixth day since she disappeared, last seen monday night, according to her family, at the computer at their home nearby. investigators have had very few clues at that home to go on. and whatever clues they have developed, they're not speaking publicly about them. they do tell us that selena's mom and stepfather have been cooperating with emthis. they've been interviewed several times, along with hundreds of other people in this tiny

community. the town is about a population of 800 people. we have more than 100 investigators from out of state, fbi's child abduction unit here as well as dozens of volunteers who have also come to this area with the same goal, of finding celina. so far they've fielded hundred -- several hundred tips but they have very little to go on. they're also hampered by the mountainous terrain out here. they've got complications of neighboring boarder of vermont as well as the close proximity of canada. the border is just less than a mile away here. and to add to all that, they've also got very spotty cell service. we've experienced this, and investigators tell us they've had to go back to passing notes in the field. that's added to their response time. they've brought in some satellite phones, but they're dealing with several layers of challenges here but they still are determined and hopeful that

they will find celina. >> michelle franzen, thank you so much for that. we are just getting word, everyone, that the house will vote on senate majority leader harry reid's debt reduction deal between 2:00 and 2:30 eastern time. now, they are all scheduled to come back into session about 20 minutes from now, so they'll have a couple hours of discussion, someone-minute speeches will go underway for about an hour or so, and then again in a very largely political move, the house will vote down as expected. senator reid's bill today, it will happen between 2:00 and 2:30 eastern time. of course we'll be watching that very closely on msnbc saturday, and we'll have more on that coming up. we'll talk about that next on msnbc saturday. ...was it something big? ...or something small? ...something old? ...or something new? ...or maybe, just maybe... it's something you haven't seen yet. the 2nd generation of intel core processors.

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leader reid's bill between 2:00 and 2:30 eastern time. we'll have more on that standoff? just a few moments. i'm joined by earl bloomenour. i heard you say you were tired of the debt debate being held hostage by republicans and will not accept any deal that does not include government spending, how far off is the boehner bill from a deal that you are willing to accept? >> well, remember what the speaker said last night. he said he'd stuck his neck out a mile. that he had been offering revenue increases. instead of just shooting down the proposal from majority leader reid, if john boehner decides to be speaker of the entire house and work with 193 democrats to go back to where he was originally, we can move away from this. this is an absolutely phony crisis. we've raised the debt ceiling

102 times before, and it is for spending that has already taken place. let's deal with this, have a balanced proposal. that's what the american public wants, and then we can get down to hard cases in terms of dealing with changing how we do business and a more sustainable fiscal path. >> okay. can you tell us a bit more about the upcoming vote that's expected to go down between 2:00 and 2:30 p.m. eastern time, how these negotiations will play out today? >> well, i mean, there's furious activity going on behind the scenes for sure. part of the problem is we lost two days when, again, the republicans instead of moving towards 193 democrats chased a few dozen of the most extreme tea party members of their own party. it would be an opportunity here, i think nobody wants to have this crisis move to an actual default. we have taken a beating in the last week since the speaker walked away from the negotiations with the president.

stock market has its worst week in a year, and we're already having consequences in terms of how we issue debt. there's a premium that is being attached. i think getting back to the cases, if they are willing to, at least in the short term, get some breathing space and go back to where the speaker said he was, and he announced it on the floor of the house, we can fashion something that is where the american public wants, not to the tea party. it's the key of john boehner being speaker of the house, not speaker of the tea party. >> we have been talking policy all morning here on msnbc saturday but i'd love to know from you what it is like to have a front row seat of the u.s. defaulting on its loans, losing its pristine aaa credit rating. how nerve wracking is it to be in that chamber right now? >> it's appalling. i've been doing this for a long time, i've been in congress 15 years. but i've never seen anything like this, where we really have

no idea how bad it could be. where we're rolling the dice, and it's absolutely unnecessary. but, you know, in a strange way, it's actually smaller than life. you would think it would be such a monumental decision. last night you watched what happened when the republicans got their bill passed. there was no joy, there were no high-fiving, they were just kind of sitting there looking at each other and just kind of -- there was dead silence and they left the chamber. this is something that is not healthy, and i hope we can get past it, because there is a path forward for a balanced approach, which the public wants, and i think the majority of people in the house and the senate could get behind and get us past this artificial crisis. >> all right. well, thank you for weighing in with us here, democratic congressman from oregon. good luck today. thanks to a constitutional amendment, president obama has the power to raise the debt ceiling on his own. but will he do it? that's next on msnbc saturday. ♪ ooh baby, looks like you need a little help there ♪

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just about ten minutes from now, the house will be back in session on capitol hill. they're planning to hold a symbolic vote between 2:00 and 2:30 p.m. republicans could use that vote to send a message that reid's plan will not fly in the house because they're voting on it prior to receiving it. the senate will reconvene at 1:00 p.m. eastern time. here with more now is pat buchanan, former communications director for president reagan. and cnbc contributor morris reed. welcome back. >> thank you. >> morris, i'll begin with you this time. the republican-led house is ready to reject reid's proposal before they get it. so if they're doing this before they see all of the details, do you see any chance of compromise at this point? >> i don't see any chance of compromise right now.

but hopefully in the next 48 hours we will. i remind these republicans that ronald reagan raised the debt ceiling 17 times. so they need to get real. let's address the real issues in america, get past this and then try to fix it, just like every other american has to balance their budget, congress should have to balance their books. stay focused on managing and balancing the books. we should really be focused on making the dollar the currency of choice, the strong currency around the world. what we're doing is undermining the strength of america and republicans don't get that. >> pat, have you ever seen a standoff like this in washington with so much at stake? you heard senator conrad, one of the gang of six or the group of six, he said in all of his years, 25 years, he's never seen anything like this. >> i've seen a lot of stalemates that come down to the last

minute. this really is something unique. let me say where i disagree with morris is, this is, as you said, this is going to be symbolic. they're going to say harry, you didn't like our plan. here's to your plan today. but what's going to come out of the senate i think on sunday or monday is a reid plan that has been agreed to by mcconnell, who has let his senators go, so they won't filibuster and can vote for it. when that comes to the house, i think it's going to go through and it's going to be a real problem for john boehner. if his tea party did not like the boehner plan, they ain't going to like at all the reid plan. so boehner is going to have to go to steny hoyer and get votes to get that through. so you've got some real drama coming up.

twh what's going to happen at 2:00 is, excuse me, but flipping the bird to harry. >> what you said is curious. leadership, whether you liked reagan or not, they provided leadership. we need the congress, whether you're a republican or democrat, to show leadership. no one is, and i'm blaming everyone. this is a football we've kicked down the road. we now need to deal with it. let's show some leadership. you were elected to lead our country, not the democrats or republicans or tea party, do the right thing. then convene a forum to force the issue. i don't understand why people can't understand they need to do this. >> i'll tell you why. this is the difference not simply where they -- when you disagree, when you're the republicans that were elected they believe to say we're headed in the wrong direction. we're not going to give you another dime. we're going to move here. democrats want to move here.

there is no common ground, i think. that's why we're having this hellish confrontation. >> listen, guys, that's going to be a wrap right there. >> it's a two-way street, pat, you know that. >> there you go. a laugh on the morning. given the events of in day in washington, we are going to extend our coverage into the afternoon. the house is going to begin its special saturday session minutes from now and the senate begins at 1:00 eastern time. i'll see you back here tomorrow morning at 8:00. we continue our live coverage next here on msnbc, the place for politics. specialists, lots of doctors, lots of advice... and my hands were full. i couldn't sort through it all. with unitedhealthcare, it's different. we have access to great specialists, and our pediatrician gets all the information. everyone works as a team. and i only need to talk to one person about her care. we're more than 78,000 people looking out for 70 million americans. that's health in numbers.

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high noon in the capital and developing right now, the clock ticking down. within this hour, we've learned the house will take a symbol ig vote on harry reid's proposal. the big question this hour, what is it going to take for both sides to come